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Should your parents be able to follow you online? – Week Five Lecture Work

An interesting point someone made in last weeks lecture was the concept of cyber parenting; your parents following your online activities. The internet is a place that the parents of our generation (generation Y) never grew up with and can be a little skeptical and unsure of how it works and the people who frequent it. It is not uncommon for parents of children to have their home computer in a common room in their house such as a lounge or media room. Some parents may even use the services of many “nanny programs” that track online history and flag or block certain sites that may be deemed detrimental to their child. These sites are usually the general pornographic and illegal material but can also be extended to social networking sites or online games that are played with other people (i.e. Runescape, EVE, etc).

However there is a great video of what’s been termed ‘Facebook Parenting’ which is mainly when parents will add their child as a friend on Facebook in order to keep up with their lives. The video (Link) shows a father of a teenage girl who has complained about her parents on Facebook, however they catch wind and in return her father makes a video about it and posts it on her Facebook. It’s a little bit more exciting than that but I’ll let you see that in the video. It’s also interesting to see the response of teenagers on this topic as well (Link).

The idea of your parents being able to follow your movements via Facebook is a touchy subject with a lot of youths, however they can only see what the user decide to show them.

It’s a bit of a touchy subject with a lot of fine lines and thin ice surrounding it. But the issue is mostly up for argument within family circles, as each family is different in how they police their child’s online usage.